Comments (0) Best Unpretentious Mixed Drinks - 2011
Fort Defiance
It won't gild your drink with gold flake, it won't set it aflame, it won't muddle it with cloudberries grown by Swedish virgins and picked at the full moon. Really, it's not even a bar, more of a neighborhood café that just happens to serve some of the friendliest, most satisfying, and most reasonably priced cocktails in the five boroughs. St. John Frizzell, a former bartender at the Pegu Club and the Good Fork, opened Fort Defiance in Red Hook in 2009. The menu changes seasonally, but there are always seven or eight mixed drinks on offer, typically variations on classics, most of them priced at less than a sawbuck. That might be a shorter list than some bôites offer, but the portions and variety never feel stingy. A Bloody Mary with aquavit can help you begin the day, while a Cucumber Collins can see you through the afternoon. Toast the onset of evening with a Barbados Buck, and an Irish Coffee with Powers whiskey should bring it to a cheerful close. Why would anyone defy a line-up like that? 365 Van Brunt Street, Brooklyn, 347-453-6672, fortdefiancebrooklyn.com (11231)
